A lesser known civil organisaton in Manipur has asked the state government to detect and deport illegal foreign migrants from Manipur within 20 days with the countdown beginning on Thursday.
In a memorandum submitted to the Manipur Chief Secretary, the Federation of Regional Indigenous Society, FREINDS while observing tremendous increase in the number of illegal migrants and outsiders in the state also demanded government should take immediate action for identification and deletion of the names of foreigners and unauthorized outsiders from the electoral rolls and creation of a department for immigrants in the state.
The lifting of the permit system from Manipur 48 years back in November 1950 was the root cause of the tremendous rise of immigrants in Manipur said the civil body and demanded re-introduction of the inner line permit system in the state once again.
Quoting a report from the “Influx of Migrants into Manipur - A threat to the indigenous Ethnic People published by the United Committee Manipur”, in the memorandum, FREINDS observed that the percentage of influx along with offspring in 2001 reached an alarming proportion of 30 percent of the total population of the state.
Maximum influx of “outsiders and forefingers in the state was detected in Moreh town located at the international border with Myanmar and Jiribam bordering with Assam while among the hill districts of the state, Senapati has the maximum number of outsiders.
While elaborating on the status of the migrant population in the said places, the civil body in its memorandum stated that while earlier immigrants heavily infested the metropolitan urban constituencies but now the peripheral constituencies have also been taken over by them.
It said Jiribam constituency located adjacent to Assam had 60 percent of the total population believed to be of migrants and more than 200 Arkanese foreigners from Myanmar were found at Moreh during a recent survey conducted by FRIENDS.
For Arkanese, the report also said that they were found well settled along with Manipuri wives.
Senapati district has maximum migrants and Nepali foreigners have almost taken over the economy and land assets of the district, the civil body observed exploring of Manipur becoming second Tripura which has been in a pitiable situation with out of 32 lakhs population more than 25 lakh being foreigners and outsiders.
The immigrants have settled extensively almost in all districts of Manipur and most of them are from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar. The immigrants settled in the state have entered their names illegally in the electoral rolls and significantly many of them are even elected in the Panchayat bodies, the memorandum further observed.
To add more problems in detection, the civil society observed that the state become a haven for the foreigners as these immigrants who infiltrated into India stealthily have come without womenfolk but get married to the local women of various tribes and stake claim over landed property, etc. and within a short period of time they have become defecto citizens of India.
The root cause of the tremendous increase in the number of immigrants in Manipur was the lifting of inner line permit system from the state, the society in its memorandum said adding that the population of the state jumped to 2.29 million in 2001 census from 1.84 million.
The growth rate is 24.86 percent against India’s growth rate of 21.35 percent. It is a duty of the state under the Constitution of India to safeguard and protect the lives and interest of the indigenous Manipuris and take up redressal measures with regard to illegal migrants issue in the state, it said.